


A Difference in Perspective

by NIXtheWADE



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen, Male Friendship, Unreliable Narrator, both are oblivious, one is angry, one is anxious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-14
Updated: 2013-07-14
Packaged: 2017-12-20 04:59:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,691
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/883220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NIXtheWADE/pseuds/NIXtheWADE
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>About two men that are slightly oblivious as to the nature of their own behaviors, but hyper-aware of their friend's. And then reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Patrick gets so angry

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been an exercise in writing for me. Please be gentle. Everything is original (which means if the characters suck, it's all my fault.)

“No, no, no. You can’t do that,” Patrick snapped at me, leaning forward in his seat - in an attempt to appear more intimidating, I’m sure. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Ease off, Patty.” His round face was all scrunched up, eyebrows practically touching, but my words seemed to calm him some.

“Come on Jacob, you can’t.” He took a deep breath and sank back into his chair. “You can’t do that, man.” I gave him my best blank look. When it came to Patrick, one had to assess a situation carefully before reacting. He tended to fly off the handle at the drop of a hat.

“Do what, exactly?” I kept my tone even and my gaze steady. This man might be a wild beast, but I had spent the past handful of years learning how to handle him. We were good friends.

“That. That!” He gestures at the table between us, arms swinging wide in his exasperation. His flailing knocked a rook over, scattering the pawns in its immediate vicinity. His face started to redden, thin lips pressed into a white line. “I can’t trust you, man. I can’t trust you!”

“I didn’t do anything,” I stated calmly, hating how he wouldn’t just come out and say what the problem was. He’d just dance around the issue, getting more and more angry. There was no reasoning with Patrick when he went into a rage.

“You’re trying to cheat me, man. You’re a liar!” The last was snapped loudly enough to make me flinch in surprise. Perhaps the situation was more dire than I had initially anticipated.

“I’m not lying to you, Patty.” I tried to place a hand on one of his gesturing arms, to calm him. “Come on. Calm down.” I gave his arm a reassuring squeeze, but he tore it out of my grip, nose flaring as he straightened his back again. He was making himself imposing again, taking on an aggressive stance. As if I was the enemy. I always hated it when my friend lost control, when I was forced to watch him turn me into the enemy.

“Jacob,” he hissed, “you-”

“Patty,” I interrupted. Surely I could do or say something to reach him. “Patrick.” His eyes darted to mine and his jaw snapped shut. I was vaguely aware of my heart hammering inside my chest, but that was an insignificant detail. The only details that mattered were on Patrick - the way his hands twitched over the chessboard; the vein that bulged on his neck. “I’m your friend, Patrick. Calm down, please.” He blinked, once, twice, then took a deep breath. I could almost _see_ the control returning to him as he took deep breath after deep breath, letting the unexplainable rage go.

“I’m calm, Jake,” he promised a long moment later. “You need to calm down now. I’m calm. Yes?”

“Yes,” I agreed, watching him warily for a sign that his switch would flip again. “Okay Patrick.” It surprised me when he extended a hand towards me warily, but the questioning look I shot him was met with a shy and hopeful smile. Yes, my friend was back.

“Okay?” he asked. I accepted his hand, squeezing it once.

“Yeah, Patrick. We’re good.”

“Good.”


	2. Jacob gets so anxious

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's always another side to every story.

“No, no, no,” I interrupted, leaning slightly into Jacob’s space. “You can’t do that. What do you think you’re doing?” He jerked in his seat, eyes bulging, fully aware that he’d been caught red-handed.

“Ease off, Patty,” he squeaked, pressing back into his chair hard enough that I worried he’d topple right over. This one spooked easily; I had to remember to be gentle with him.

“Come on, Jacob,” I sighed, forcing myself to relax and ease back out of his space. Jacob had always been really sensitive about his personal space. It made moments like these difficult. “You can’t...” I worried about being too blunt. He didn’t react well when you were too forward with him, either. “You can’t do that, man.” He blinked twice, eyes round and watering. His jaw slackened and trembled for a few seconds before he spoke again.

“Do what? Exactly?” He was like a deer caught at headlights. He knew he was guilty and he knew that I also knew.

“That. That!” I gestured at the table between us, accidentally knocking one of the rooks over. A few more pawns toppled over in its wake. My evidence was destroyed, and now all Jacob had to do was to keep playing dumb. It was exasperating when he did that because he might look dumb, but he wasn’t. We were supposed to be friends. “I can’t trust you, man.” I thought we were friends, but friendship requires trust. “I can’t trust you!”

“I didn’t do anything,” he insisted, voice pitching high like it always did when he panicked. His eyes darted from side to side, refusing to meet my own gaze, refusing to admit what he did.

“You’re trying to cheat me, man. You’re a liar!” He jerked again and his hands were shaking when he finally looked at me again.

“I’m not lying to you, Patty.” He gasped a breath, reaching for my arm. “Come on. Calm down.” His fingers dug into my skin and I could feel the clamminess dampening my shirt. I pulled my arm back, trying to keep the disgust from my face, and straightened my back.

“Jacob, you-”

“Patty. Patrick.” The words died in my mouth because he was practically hyperventilating now, but he had met my gaze again and he held it. His eyes were watery. This worried me. Even when he was being his most unreasonable, I didn’t want to see Jacob cry. “I’m your friend, Patrick. Calm down, please.” The way his voice broke over the last word was like a punch to the gut. I sat further back into my chair, always willing to give him his space. I took a deep breath, held it, then let it out slowly, hoping he’d follow my lead. He had to slow his breathing or he’d pass out.

“I’m calm, Jake. You need to calm down now. I’m calm. Yes?”

“Yes,” he parroted. His shallow breaths deepened and started to slow. “Okay Patrick.” His shoulders tensed when I slowly extended my hand across the table, but he didn’t jump up and run away. Instead he eyed it warily, then me.

“Okay?” I repeated, hand extended, waiting. The corner of his mouth twitched before he slowly extended his own hand, gently laying it on top of my own. I saw the tension leak out of his shoulders as I wrapped my fingers around his palm, squeezing once.

“Yeah, Patrick. We’re good.”

“Good.”


	3. Endless Entertainment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An outside perspective.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This entire thing is unbeta'ed and unedited. I will probably visit it later and fix it up, but right now? I'm just glad I finally wrote something. So there ya have it lol

Patty and Jake were always a trip to watch. Quality entertainment was hard to come by when you were a wheelchair-confined mute, but I had always been an optimist and an opportunist at heart – and Patrick and Jacob? Those two were nothing if not an opportunity for almost endless amusement. They were like one of those romantic comedies you sometimes see on TV, though they are not together in that precise definition of the word.

The two of them were admitted a few months apart, but they seemed to gravitate together. They struck an unlikely friendship a little over a week from their first meeting. I know all this because I was a watcher even back then, though it’s been almost a decade since. I kept my chair a safe distance from their table, though I’d experimented with seating myself closer to them in the past and neither of them had ever seemed to notice. Still, I thought it better not to take unnecessary chances and risk blowing the whole thing. If there was an incident, the nurses might have forced me to keep my distance.

On today’s menu was a chess game I’ve grown slightly more familiar with over the years, though its particulars are still beyond me. Not that I don’t know how to play chess – I’m quite proficient at board games; see: mute. We are limited in our methods of bonding with friends and other patients at the home. The Patty and Jake way of playing chess, however, was an different matter altogether. They moved the pieces in unpredictable patterns, though neither of them ever seemed surprised at what the other decided to do with his pieces, even when the pieces they moved weren’t strictly theirs.

And then, out of nowhere, Patrick’s switch flipped.

I saw a nurse approaching from the corner of my eyes as I watched Patrick start to rage, face getting redder and redder as he grunted a combination of words and noises at Jake, who in turn started jerking in his seat and whimpering. But the nurse had been there almost as long as I had and she slowed her steps as she reached me, watching warily as Patrick waved his arms around violently and Jake almost had a nervous breakdown.

But see, that’s where the two of them surprised all of us by actually striking a friendship that was truly genuine. By all expectations, a man with an anger management problem and one with severe anxiety spending time together would be catastrophic, yet the two of them made it work. The nurse came to a stop a few steps in front of me when Jerky Jake reached out and grabbed Peeved Patrick’s arm. It didn’t quite work like magic; Jacob’s touch did not leech the ire from Patrick’s flesh – but when the bigger man tore away from his smaller friend, everything came to a sudden halt. Patrick was still beat red, but frozen, because those were tears in Jacob’s eyes.

And then the two of them were taking deep, steadying breaths, just like they were taught in therapy. The violent color slowly faded from Patrick’s face and he extended a hand towards his friend, who jerked but only hesitated a couple of seconds before taking it. Silence fell as the two sat there, smiling at each other, chess pieces lying on the table between them, knocked down and forgotten. The nurse sighed before she turned and walked away.

Yup. Endless entertainment.


End file.
